


I have no idea what to title this rn so i'm just gonna title this "o look a jsab fic"

by The_Nightshade_Serpent



Category: Just Shapes & Beats (Video Game)
Genre: Also headcanons, Body Horror, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gen, Mentions of Death, Slow Burn, Violence, and also barracuda says some mildly concerning shit when they're not thinking out loud, assume that everyone is nonbinary unless otherwise stated, barracuda in this fic is essentially sitting in a dark corner and staring at everyone who passes by, he is very confused, headcanons are a thing that appear in this fic, only one of them is a chaotic oblivious dumbass, so he knows jack shit about emotions & shit, square gets corrupted first chapter and it's absolute hell
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2019-09-06 18:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16837894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Nightshade_Serpent/pseuds/The_Nightshade_Serpent
Summary: I took one look at canon, kinda followed it for a little bit, then chucked the entire thing out of the window for plot's sake.Rated as "Teen" for a shit ton of swearing. Also a little bit of body horror. A little bit.Things get worse before they get better. (Then they may or may not get worse & then better again.) Some humour sprinkled into a stress-filled angsty fic and then later some fluff gets sprinkled in as well.and nobody's okay. At least they aren't gonna be okay when this fic gets to them eventually.also this fic is the brainchild of a shitposter who found a ship in the fandom that I thought was cute in that ONE fic that I found of it, then kinda decided to add that in.((also just assume that everyone mentioned is nonbinary unless otherwise stated. PK's a guy tho lol.))





	1. In which everything goes to Hell & the technical apocalypse kinda starts

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The way that i'm writing this is sorta a mix of the third-person & first-person viewpoints. You kinda see it from the character's perspective, while also not being in those (in my opinion) horrible traps of the first-person viewing in writing.
> 
> Hence why none of the shapesquad call the corruption shit that's happening "corruption" until p much 3/4ths through this chapter.
> 
> Also, sorry for the REALLY long chapter (24 pages in the google doc im writing this on lmao), and if you guys want I can start breaking down the chapters.  
> For now, grab some popcorn and enjoy!

Things had happened far too quickly. One moment they were with Cube, trying to help what **looked** like a gray flower, the next they were running from a pink shape that had just appeared. (though in square’s case “dragged” was a better word since they had froze up and had to be dragged out by Cube.) Things had gone to hell pretty quickly after that. The pink shape had torn down the treeangle, consumed at least one part of it, and after a long “fight”, (that was just them dodging for both their and their friend’s lives while it sporadically charged around, causing massive amounts of destruction) eventually shot/spat them off onto a small island that was closer to the volcano.

Square had spotted Cube clinging to a tree in the water as it drifted farther away, and they had tried to jump in to help them. It didn’t go well. The water apparently had been turned pink, and it HURT to touch. However, that didn’t stop them from trying again, ignoring the pain. The third time they went to jump in the water, Tri ended up grabbing them and dragging them away.

“Square! Jumping into something that you know will hurt you is no way to help them!”

“Tri’s right square, it’ll only hurt you.”

“Square, listen, we might find something that will help us get over there at the volcano.” Square relented. They did have good points, and besides, knowing them, the three of them would literally drag them away if they needed to.

“Well fuck”

“What is it tri?”

“There’s no bridge Circle.” Both Circle and Square started, before saying “ **WHAT** ” at the same time. Square was more panicked though. The pink water hurt them, so it wouldn’t be that large of a step for it to hurt the others. It would be very bad if they had to go through it.

“Square, calm down, panicking is the OPPOSITE of what we want right now. Same goes to you circle.”

“Hey, wait a moment… what’s that?”

“What’s what tri?”

“That.” Tri gestured towards the pink water, at an small grey object floating towards them. It looked familiar, but it was too distant to tell.

“Is that one of those gateway things?” The other three turned to look at circle. “...It looks like it may be one.” The three looked back, and square took off running to try and get a better look.

“What are the chances of **THAT**?”

“Don’t question it Tri.”

“GUYS, IT’S ONE OF THOSE GATEWAY THINGS.”

“Are you serious.”

“I **told** you to not question it Tri.”

“Shut it Penta”

“I’M GOING IN.” With that the three other shapes sprinted over to the gateway, and lept in after square.

* * *

The squad had managed to get past the corrupted bullets of the space behind the gateway, and square, as usual, charged forward to snag the bubble triangle. ( they preferred to call those miniature triangles that anyway.)They did notice a sort of buzzing feeling on the tips of their fingers, but they ignored it for now. It was probably from them being the one who handled the bubble triangles the most. A bridge did end up being made by the miniature triangle, and square dashed ahead, the rest of the shapesquad following, only to dash into a pink flower that had jumped out of the water. Just like the water itself, it HURT to touch. A combination of being startled and in pain ended up causing square to land rather painfully on the ground. The buzzing feeling temporarily intensified, but quickly became nothing but background quickly.

“HOLY FUCK. WHAT WAS THAT. PEEEENTAAAAAA YOU KNOW THINGS WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT” At more or less the same time circle whispered “What the f u c k” to themself.

“Well, it looked like a flo-” The flower leapt back out of the water at that point, and did attempt to lash out at the group, making horrible garbled sounds, but they were just out of reach of it’s claws. It did startle all of them enough to cause them to jump farther away from it though. “AAAACKGGGWHATTHEACTUALMOTH **ERFUCK** -”

“That’s what **I** asked Penta.” Circle, though startled, hurriedly (and nervously) tried to calm the others down.

“Tri, please shut it, penta, what can you guess from what you’ve seen, and are you alright Square? You dashed head-first into it.” In the background Tri muttered something about “bullshit pink things”, and penta started fidgeting out of nervousness.

“I’m fine.” Square muttered, “It just hurt really bad when I ran into it. Like the water and the pink bullets in the gateways.”

“Okay” Penta piped up, “We’ll have to avoid coming in contact with these… pink flower things…”

“Penta why does one of it’s eyes look like it’s melting out of socket.” All of them turned to stare at Tri, and simultaneously said;

“ **W h a t.** ” Tri guestured over to the hole in the bridge, where the flower once again surfaced and tried to attack them, even though they were clearly out of reach. Its serrated claws scrabbling on the bridge’s surface.

“One of its eyes looks REALLY fucked up. You can see it when it’s trying to attack us.” on the bridge, the flower sank back into the water, leaving scratch marks in the bridge’s surface, as well as some black drops of **something**. After a bit of a pause, Circle spoke up.

“Speaking of said flower trying to attack us, I don’t think that it’s very smart.”

“Why Circle?”

“Well, it’s still trying to attack us even though we’re out of range. Flowers can still go on land, and it’s only trying to get at us from the hole in the bridge.” There was another pause, in which the flower once again attempted to attack them from the bridge. “See?” Square tilted their head, staring at the bridge. Something was bugging them. When the flower emerged for the fourth time, claws scrabbling on the bridge, it clicked.

“There’s a pattern” The other three sharply turned to stare at them.

“What?”

“There’s a pattern in the way it moves.” Square stood up, before gesturing at the bridge. “There’s roughly enough time for one of us to dash to the other side in between it’s attacks.” On cue, the flower shot out of the water, claws again scrabbling at the badly-scratched edge of the bridge. It looked like if it had a mouth, it would have been screaming and frothing in rage.

The rest of the group of shapes glanced at each other for a quick moment, and then back at the enraged pink flower of the bridge.

“I can’t believe that I missed **that**.”

“Tri, it was more likely that you were focused on the fact that a pink flower was trying to murder your face. I certainly was”

“Shut it Penta”

“Tri, Penta, now is NOT the time to be getting in a fight.”

“It just went back down, i’m making the jump.”

“Square, waIT-” by the time circle had turned their attention to square and said that, Square was already at the bridge, charging strait at the hole. Penta sighed in exasperation.

“I swear that Square’ll be the first one to shatter.”

“Don’t joke about that. Please.”

“Challenge accepted.” Penta and Circle both sharply turned to face Tri, aghast.

“Tri **NO**.”

“HA! I MADE IT! EAT SHIT YOU PI-” The three snapped their attention to the bridge, where square was on the other side of the hole, apparently gloating the fact that they were right about the pink flower. On cue the pink flower shot up, and lashed out directly at square. It wouldn’t have been a problem if it was still clawing at the side that was closer to the rest of the shapes, but it didn’t, instead focusing on the shape that was closest. Which just happened to be square. “-AAAAAA **AAGGHKDFJDFSKSDG** FDHAHFDA **SAAA!!!**!” The other three shapes started a bit.

“Well. That’s gonna be a bit of a problem.”

“No shit Penta”

“Tri, please don’t swear so much.”

“I swear when a swear needs to be said Circle. Now, let’s go see if we can find anything.”

* * *

After a lot of dodging murderous pink flowers while trying not to fall into the water from the bridge, they did end up finding a boat shape. They were in three pieces and suspended in three separate boxes floating in the air. There were three of those gateway things as well. Penta sighed, pinching the area where the bridge of their nose would have been if they had one, before asking:

“Okay, so which one do we go through first?” The squad glanced at each other then back at the gateway things.

“There’s three of them…”

“Maybe we split up?”

“No that’d be a absolute HORRIBLE idea. We need to stick together in case one of us shatters.”

“Panta has a point.”

“. . . ‘PANTA’!?”

“Sorry my tongue slipped.”

“That’s your name now panta.”

“TRI I SWEAR TO FUCKING-” Square made a frustrated sound. The buzzing feeling flared in intensity as they stood up.

“Well, I’M going to the closest one. It would be best off if we started moving.“ The other three shapes looked at each other, before taking off after square, who had already made it to the closest gateway.

* * *

This gateway had started off pretty simple. Just two spinning dotted circles, that occasionally expanded with the silent beat. After a couple of seconds, bullets started flying, still sticking to the silent beat that this particular gateway followed.

“This is going to turn out horrible isn’t it.”

“What makes you say that Penta?” Somewhere to the left, tri shouted “NO CIRCLE THEY’RE PANTA” before promptly being smacked in the face by a round-ish pink rectangle as the gateway’s silent beat changed.

“HA! K A R M A!” Then all of the shapes had to focus on dodging. After about a minute the next ‘phase’ of the gateway started, and almost immediately, they got stabbed in the face by the sudden change in the beat. Again.

“F U C K”

“Yep this is turning out horrible.”

“Stop being so negative Penta, nobody’s shattered yet.”

“I’m one hit away tho.”

“Okay, Tri, get over there with Square, worst-case scenario, me and circle have to get you before you float off.” Tri grumbled a bit before dashing up to join Square. Luckily, they somehow managed to avoid getting hit again for the rest of the gateway’s level. Square was again the first one to reach to the bubble triangle.

The buzzing feeling continued.

* * *

The other two gateways weren’t as difficult as that one, which was a relief for the squad of shapes.

“What was the problem with that one gateway.”

“Don’t know don’t care. It’s over.”

“It’s NOT over tho. It’s NEVER over.” Tri groaned. They were not a fan of this.

“Fuuuuck…. I want to lie down somewhere. My fucking feet hurt.”

“Language Tri.”

“Ordinarily i’d say ‘english’ but i’m in too much pain to do that right now circle.”

“Wait, tri’s not being a sarcastic little shit? IS THE WORLD ENDING OR SOME SHIT!??” There was a pause as the four shapes looked at each other and then around them at the pink environment surrounding them. “Well… I guess that’s kinda a stupid question.” An awkward pause permeated the air, as the four glanced around their surroundings again.

“I thought that the apocalypse would be more… violent.”

“You just fuckin jinxed us Circle.”

“Well… not everything is as it seems then eh?”

“You guys can blame me for this.”

“Square no, you’re not at fault for this.”

“I **FEEL** LIKE IT IS THOUGH.”

“Square… you didn’t know that this would happen. It’s not **your** fault.”

“Okay everyone, dogpile on square to make them feel better.”

“My feet hurt like all fuck but okay.”

* * *

The group stayed in that group hug for a good long time before circle piped up.

“So… should we…. Help the boat shape get back together or…?”

“O yeah.”

“Forgot about that. Whoops.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Square stood and shook off the other three shapes before walking towards the boat. The buzzing feeling was still there. It hadn’t faded. They were actually starting to get a bit concerned about it. The boat needed help first though. They could ask penta what might be wrong with them on the way.

Right now, there was someone who needed help.

* * *

It turned out that the boat shape’s name was Steam. They were rather chatty, had a bit of an accent that made it hard to understand them at times, and were a bit startled at waking up and finding four shapes staring at them, but they adapted rather quickly to their situation.

“Hey, Steam quick question.”

“Whit is it?”

“Can you help us get across the water?”

“Weel, as Ah am reit noo, Ah can pure only carry a body ay ye at a time.”

“W h a t”

“I think that Steam’s saying that they can only carry one of us at a time right now.”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck.”

“Do you… have something that can help you carry us over?”

“Ah hae a raft jist doon th' beach. stored in in a bit ay a dip in th' side ower thaur. shoods still be intact.”

“That’s good to hear. You think that you can get it and help ferry us around?”

“Mate, Ah owe aw ay ye a body fur helpin' me ower thaur. i'll be canty tae ferry ye troaps aroond."

“Thank you Steam.”

“Uh, Steam… Your accent is really hard to understand…” Steam chuckled good-naturedly.

"i gie 'at a lot."

“Can you try to… help us understand better?”

"i can try, but there's nae guarantee that'll wark."

* * *

After a quick search for Steam’s raft, the group of five were off. The buzzing still hadn’t faded. Square took a deep breath, mentally preparing for something potentially really bad.

“Hey Penta.”

“Yeah Square?”

“I’ve started feeling this sort-of buzzing feeling in my fingers. Is that normal?”

“When did this start?”

“A little while ago.”

“Maybe it’s stress.” Steam piped up, accent still there but their words actually understandable.

“Maybe… I don’t remember anything else that can cause it other than that thing that happens when you use something too much.”

“So i’m not going to die of something horrible?”

“Not as far as I can tell.” Square breathed a sigh of relief.

“That’s really good to hear.”

"yeah it i- HOLY MAMMY AY FUCK." The reason why Steam had shouted that was because a pink flower had shot up from the water and was trying (and failing) to claw its way onto the boat. "WHAT TH' FUCK IS THAT"

“Pink flower.”

“I think that it’s trying to get at us.”

“At least we don’t have to run around to avoid them now.”

“Relax Steam,” circle said, trying to be as comforting as possible. “They’re really stupid.”

“And they move to a pattern”

“Yeah that too. It’s really easy to avoid them.” Steam was still uncomfortable and borderline panicking.

"i'll tak' yer wuid fur it."

* * *

The Rest of the trip was dodging pink flowers popping out of the water and clawing at the raft. They did make it in one piece to the volcano though. Steam sighed.

"we're ootta 'at neck ay th' woods noo... dornt hae tae fash yerse noo.”

“What.”

“Sorry, I don’t think that we understood that.”

“GUYS WHAT IS THAT.” The five of them looked up sharply. The pink shape from before was there, and apparently was slam-dunking one of the treeangle pieces into the volcano while very nearly vibrating out of existence for some reason.

“OH FUCK”

“NOT THIS BASTARD AGAIN”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS IT DOING”

“WHY IS THE VOLCANO PINK NOW”

“This is REALLY bad.”

“NO SHIT SHERLOCK” Steam was just flat-out panicking and was curled up in the raft as much as physically possible. Circle, noticing Steam’s fear hurried over to comfort them while the other three were panicking.

“Hey, hey Steam.” Steam turned to look at circle, clearly afraid. “It’s gonna be fine.”

“THE PINK BITCH JUST LEFT”

“Great now we gotta try & undo THIS SHIT.”

“Can we even undo it?”

“Dude we have a track record of being really lucky s.o.bs so we have a good chance as any.”

“Steam, do you think that you can handle being out here for a little while?”

"yeah... Ah hink 'at Ah can handle bein' aloyn it haur fur a wee bit..."

“Good… We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“Hopefully we’ll still be in one peice by then.”

“Stop being pessimistic, we can regenerate remember?”

“O yeah.”

* * *

“Well fuck. The way’s blocked.” There was a wall of rock that stopped them from entering the rest of the volcano.

“There’s a cavern over there. Maybe there’s a detour we can take?”

“That’s actually a pretty good ide- oh.”

“‘Oh’ what?” Square, who was leading the group, gestures to the wall of black in front of them.

“O H.”

“Great now we gotta fight someone?”

“Yeah p much…”

“F u c k.”

“Yo circle, you know people, anyone you know that could have this potential?”

“I don’t know a lot of people from here… I know one flower tho. They live deeper in tho.”

“So it isn’t them…”

“Yeah it isn’t.” Penta unleashed a long-suffering sigh.

“Let’s get this over with.”

“I agree Penta. Let’s get this over with so that we can continue.” The group of four shapes stepped into the blackness cautiously. They didn’t want them to be seperated (or worse shattered) each other, so they stayed close together.

Needless to say, all were startled by the suddenly-appearing pink triangle and…

“SNAKES!?”

“Oh no.”

“WHAT!?”

“Okay, good news bad news time!” Penta shouted, while dodging another snake and some bullets. “Good news: I know what we’re going up against now!”

“The bad news?”

“WERE PROBABLY GONNA DIE.”

“TELL DEATH TO FUCK OFF THEN.”

“WHY ARE WE GONNA DIE!?”

“WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING?”

“CAVE TRIANGLE SNAKE THING”

“WHAT?”

“GUYS THE PATTERN’S CHANGING”

“HOLY SHI-” All of the shapes dash-scattered to avoid the solid wall of pink that was hurled at them

“.-.. . .- ...- .”

“Did you guys just hear some hissing sounds?”

“I’M MORE CONCERNED ABOUT NOT DYING RIGHT NOW.”

“I heard them too circle.”

“YEP WE’RE GONNA DIE.”

“Tri, Penta cAN YOU STOP PANICKING”

“THAT’S EASY FOR YOU TO SAY SQUARE.”

“IM TRYING NOT DIE HERE”

“PENTA, CAN YOU AT LEAST TELL US ABOUT THIS THING?”

“OKAY, SNAKES. HAS SNAKES.” in the background Tri barely dodged a snake.

“NO SHIT SHERLOCK”

“IT APPEARS TO ‘EXPLODE’ TO MASK IT’S ESCAPE.”

“How long does that take?”

“I DON’T KNOW.”

“HOW ARE YOU SO CALM CIRCLE”

“Okay, so we have to outlast it until it makes it’s escape?”

“That’s what I’M hearing at the very least.”

“Hold on, let me try something…”

“Circle what are you-” Circle dashed close to it.

“OI CAVE-SNAKE-TRIANGLE-THING”

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE SAYING, BUT WE’RE JUST TRYING TO FIND A WAY THROUGH.”

“..-. .. --. .... -” Said pink shape launched another wave of attacks, (and snakes.)

“GOOD GOING CIRCLE! YOU’VE PISSED IT OFF.”

“GUYS I THINK THAT IT’S THE SOURCE OF THE HISSING.”

“nO SHIT SHERLOCK.”

“.- .-- .- -.--”

“PENTA, WHAT ELSE DO YOU KNOW?”

“TERRITORIAL? THERE’S TOO LITTLE INFORMATION TO BE SURE THOUGH.”

At that point, the pink triangle dropped out of sight into the blackness.

“IS IT OVER?” Tri screeched from the top edge of the black section.

As if a response, pink rectangles began shooting out of the ‘floor’. “FUCK I JINXED US.”

“GUYS IT’S COMING BACK UP.”

“FUCK.”

“Okay guys, get ready to dodge like all hell.”

“Why square?”

“Everything that’s been attacking us so far has been following some sort of pattern.”

“OH.”

“OH FUCK THERES GONNA BE A **_DROP_ **.”

“WE **JUST** NOW REALIZED THIS!?” The shapes once again scattered to dodge, and A couple of them unfortunately dashed right into the attacks that were taking over the bottom of the area.

“FUCK”

* * *

When the entity that there were dodging fled, most of them had been hit at least twice.

“Snakes.” Tri groaned. “It HAD. To be. SNAKES.”

“Hey, lighten up,” Circle said, still missing over half of their body, but regenerating. “It could’ve been SPIDERS. Or a round two with the big pink that caused this whole mess in the first place.” Tri groaned again.

“We’re most likely gonna have to have a round two with pink bastard.” Penta muttered darkly to themself. “For all we know it still has _two_ of the treeangle pieces.”

“Good point Penta.”

“Hey well… We’re alive! That’s something to be glad about!”

“Yaaaaayyyyyyyyy…”

“Oh hey, Tri’s being sarcastic again.”

“Can someone check to see if the apocalypse stopped?”

“Yeah I am being sarcastic… and i’m so fucking tired and sooooreeeeeeee….”

“We ALL are. We’re just not commenting on it.”

“Hey… guys?” Circle started glancing around.

“What is it circle?”

“Do you guys feel like you’re being watched.”

“A little yeah.”

“--- -. . | .--. .. -. -.- | - .... .- - | .. ... | -. --- - | -.-- . -”

“HOLY FUCK”

“Okay, screw resting let’s GET OUT OF HERE.” The shapesquad hurriedly exited, the miniature triangle knocked down the wall blocking their path deeper into the volcano, and they all dashed through. The shape that they had just ‘fought’ was eying them, or rather where they had been, from its position among the stalactites of the cavern.

“.. ... | - .... . -.-- | .- .-- .- .-. . ..--.. | --- ..-. | - .... .- - ..--.. | -.-. ..- .-. .. --- ..- ... .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.-”

* * *

The shapesquad skidded to a collective halt to catch their breaths when they reached the next cavern, that was, quick frankly REALLY dark. They could really only see from their own light. Which, if you pardon the pun, was something that they hadn’t really seen before.

“Woa dude check this shit out. We GLOW”

“Okay.” There was a solid pause where the squad catches their collective breaths.

“Man that was REALLY freaky. REALLY REALLY freaky.”

“The hissing?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“WHERE DID IT COME FROM.”

“Where did it go cotton eye joe” Square snorted. Tri turned to face circle sharply.

“Did you just really pull off a joke? Are you gonna steal my position as the jokester?”

“I was trying to calm people down…”

“It worked for me.” There was a pause, in which they could hear drips of water dropping into a larger body of water somewhere to their right.

“Should we… take a break?”

“Yeah. Maybe get some rest…” Tri, who was apparently tired, promptly face planted into the ground gracefully. Actually not it wasn’t graceful. It was a sarcastic graceful.

“Wake me up when we move. Or if anything happens.” Then tri promptly passed out. Square sighed, leaning up against one of the walls of the cave tunnel. The buzzing feeling was still there, they noticed. It had been thrust to the background, probably from the adrenaline that had come with the danger. It was probably nothing. Square was started out of their thoughts by Circle coming over and sitting next to them.

“You okay Square?” If square had eyes, they would have blinked in surprise.

“I think so…?” Square paused, giving circle the chance to speak if they wanted to. When they didn’t, Square continued. “This… buzzing feeling isn’t going away… I know that it’s probably nothing, and just something caused by my stress… “

“But you’re worrying about it?”

“Yeah… I am.” another pause. Circle made a ‘go on’ gesture. “I don’t… don’t want to be separated from you guys… I don’t want you guys to be hurt.”

“I’m the same way…” There was a long lull in their conversation, the only sounds being Tri’s quiet snoring, and the drips of water falling into a larger section of water somewhere to the right in the darkness. It was almost… soothing. Calm. They could only see as far as their glow would let them, but it wasn’t an issue.

“Hey… circle.”

“Yes Square?”

“In the off chance something happens to me… make sure that they don’t fall into too much harm… okay?”

“Okay Square…” Penta had left for a bit to scout out the area, but was coming back now. They could hear their footsteps. Tri was still asleep in the middle of the cave tunnel, and Penta stepped over them and then joined Circle and Square in leaning against the cave wall.

“Found a Gateway.” Penta whispered, keeping quiet to not wake up Tri. “A little farther down the tunnel. There’s a bit of tunnel after that, but it ends in what’s causing all of those dripping sounds.”

“A big lake?” Square asked.

“Yeah a big one.” Penta shifted position to make themselves more comfortable. “The only problem is that it’s pink water. I wonder why it’s pink tho...” Square sighed.

“That’s… going to be a Issue.”

“Yeah. It is.”

“Though I think that the gateway may help us in that regard. They’ve helped us before.”

“True.”

“Let’s rest for a bit and recover our full health first though.” Circle nodded at the still-sleeping Tri. “And let’s make sure that we wake Tri up before we leave.”

* * *

They waited for about ten more minutes before leaving, waking up Tri on the way out. Or rather… Trying to wake Tri up. Square ended up having a half-asleep Tri piggyback riding them until they woke up enough to be able to walk.

Now, they were all currently at the gateway.

“Nearly walked right past it on my way out.” Penta remarked. “Barely saw it in the darkness.”

“Well, it’s good that you did see it.” Circle spoke, “Otherwise we’d have had to go back out and climb the volcano.” Tri shuddered

“Yeah. I think that I would’ve shattered trying.”

“Tri, don’t joke about stuff like that. Please.”

“What? I’m not allowed to have a fatalistic sense of humor in the apocalypse now?”

“Tri, just please don’t joke about it. It’s hard enough knowing that you guys get hurt… from something that-”

“SQUARE. YOU DID NOT CAUSE ANY OF THIS. THE BIG PINK DID.”

“Petition to call Big Pink ‘Pink Bastard’?” Square couldn’t help but snort. Tri was trying to cheer them up with some sort of joke. It was working. Kinda. Okay, not really, but it was amusing.

“Sounds about right.”

“Okay, vote of hands, who here says that we should refer to Big pink as ‘Pink Bastard’.” Square chuckled. Before turning serious once again.

“Right now, we need to go through this gateway, and go further in.”

“I hope that Lylan’s okay…”

“Lylan?”

“One of my Flower Friends. Also the only one of my friends who lives here.”

“Oh. Okay.”

* * *

This gateway started out with drops of pink dropping from the ceiling, and with the bottom slowly filling with more of the pink.

“Fuck, were gonna have to deal with trying not to drown in pink now.”

“Maybe.”

“Hopefully not. I didn’t prepare to swim in pink things that hurt today.” about thirty seconds pass of the squad avoiding the drips before Penta spotted something at the ‘roof’ of the gateway.

“Well shit.”

“What?”

“Look up.” the rest of the squad who were not looking up, looked up. There were pink spikes on the ceiling. The squad of shapes reacted in the way any regular person who had recently realized that they were living in an apocalypse would. Which was ito say the least, some sort of form of acceptance.

“Who wants to bet that those are gonna fall?” As if on cue, one of the spikes flashed a couple of times, then fell. “Fuck I jinxed it.”

“Nice going Tri.”

“Hey! Be nice!” The following minute or so was filled with the squad dodging the falling triangles.

“Can the rest of the gateway just be this?”

“Who wants to bet that Tri just jinxed us again.”

“PENTA! BE NICE.”

“Circle, iT’S THE FUCKING **APOCALYPSE** AND YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT BEING **NICE!**?”

“Yes.” Tri snorted in amusement from somewhere to the left of the two. That was an absolute Classic Circle moment there. Square made a frustrated sound. Penta and Circle didn’t appear to get along that well. That could be detrimental to the group in the long run.(Especially if something happened to them) Tri apparently decided that it was time to nip the soon-to-be argument at the bud. With a well-paced (or at least a well-placed to Tri) joke.

“So, when’s the marriage?” The two shapes both whirled to glare at Tri with the eyes they did not have. Tri backed off hurriedly, their ‘hands’ raised in the universal sign of ‘i don’t have a weapon & im not gonna hurt you so please don’t murder my face.’ “Okay, okay, i get it. You don’t want to talk about the marriage.”

“Tri.” Square began, “I’m pretty sure that both of them would’ve socked you in your lack of face for that joke.”

“Jeez, am I the only one who still has their sense of humor?”

“IN THE **MIDDLE** OF **THE FUCKING APOCALYPSE**!?”

“Oh yeah. Kinda forgot about that.”

“How do you forget about the **apocalypse**!?” It was at this time that the gateway apparently decided to throw something into the mix. Said something taking the form of a really big-ass laser, that also happened to send waves flaring out from its impact on the pink liquid at the bottom of the gateway. All save for square took damage from that.

“oH FUCK WERE DEALING WITH WATER PHYSICS.”

“GET READY, BECAUSE THERE ARE MORE COMING.”

“SHIT.”

“OH FUCK THERE ARE LASERS TOO.”

“Did you mean MORE lasers?”

“THOSE BIG-ASS THINGS THAT CAUSED WATER PHYSICS WERE **LASERS!?** ”

“Yeah, I think so.” While that interaction was happening, lasers started shooting horizontally and vertically across the space, all to a hidden beat. The shapes were more or less frantically dodging to avoid getting hit by the lasers.

“GUYS STAY CLOSE TO THE CEILING,” Square shouted at the others. The other three all turned and shouted back at Square.

“WHAT?”

“THE PINK DOESN’T GO TO THE TOP. IT’S SAFER THERE WHILE **THIS** IS HAPPENING.” Square gestured to the lasers smashing into the pink liquid at the bottom, which were sending waves of pink shooting across the area.

“OH FUCK YOU’RE RIGHT.” The rest of the squad dashed up to the top, and Tri took another hit. “FUCK.”

The lasers smashing into the pink liquid at the bottom of the gateway continued for about another minute, before the pattern once again changed.

“FUCK! EVERYONE GET DOWN!”

“I ONLY HAVE ONE HIT LEFT.”

“THE PINK LIQUID’S NOT IN A WAVE ANYMORE SO AS LONG AS YOU DON’T DASH INTO IT YOU’LL BE FINE.”

“Oh.”

“GUYS THE SPIKES ARE BACK.”

“Oh no.”

“THERE ARE LASERS NOW TOO!?”

“This is… not good.”

“NO SHIT SHERLOCK.”

* * *

The squad scraped through that gateway with most of them on one hit left. The miniature triangle that was gathered from that ended up ‘turning on’ the mushrooms, which for SOME REASON worked like a hivemind of lamps. It did reveal a pathway to go deeper in. However, parts of the pathway were moving on pillars of pink water.

“Okay, I call bullshit on that.” Penta muttered.

“The water physics must be REALLY fucked up then.”

“You don’t say?”

“I did say.”

“Tri, Penta, at least TRY not to fight. We don’t need that right now.”

“Can I sock Tri in the face after this whole thing is over?”

“Sure.”

“Wait WHAT.”

* * *

The path that the squad ended up having to take took a while, mostly because of them having to wait for the platforms on the moving pillars of pink water to actually get to a level where they could safely jump on. Eventually through a good deal of jumping, and waiting patiently(or more accurately, impatiently) for the platforms to get on a level where they could get on safely, they managed to get to another gateway. The damage that they had taken from the previous gateway was pretty much all regenerated.

“Let’s take a bit of a break. So we can heal all the way.”

“Sounds like a good idea. We don’t know what we’re getting into with this gateway.”

“When this is over I am never going to exercise again.”

“Tri, that’s impossible and you know that.”

“Okay, when this is over I am never gonna walk around so much that it hurts.”

“That’s a bit more realistic.” The squad all sat down, leaning against the wall of the small cavern they were in. There was still the distant sound of water dripping from their left, and some sounds that could only be described as ‘lava sounds’ from somewhere beneath them. It was no longer dark, and there were glowing triangle-shaped mushrooms scattered around the wall, ceiling, and floor, bathing the area in a warm glow. It was quiet and almost… peaceful in a way.

“The buzzing still bothering you square?”

“Yeah… It’s still there.”

“Understandable.”

“Yeah this is a stressful situation to be in. Because you know… the apocalypse?”

“We know Tri. We know.” There was another long pause. After a while Circle spoke up.

“Okay, I’m healed fully. How’s everyone else?”

“Same Circle.”

“Give me a couple more seconds.”

“I’m ready to go when the rest of you are.”

“Okay, i’ve regenerated fully. Let’s do this shit.”

* * *

This gateway started with a weird pixely-square shape(not to be confused with Square.) that the sides appeared to be moving somewhat similarly to the pink water-like thing from the last gateway they had been in. Only not following any of the laws of physics. And pixelated. A couple of seconds in, one of the sides flashed before releasing a bunch of square-shaped bullets in a roughly zig-zag pattern.

“Okay, this is prolly gonna suck ass” Tri began, “but I will admit that this looks cool.” roughly ten seconds after Tri finished that sentence, the one in the middle vanished and two appeared at either end of the gateway’s area. The pattern still was the same, but only reversed on the two different pink shapes.

“This is WAY too easy…” Penta muttered.

“Yeah it is…” Square muttered back.

“Who wants to bet that it’ll ABSOLUTELY suck ass?” Tri shouted from the other side of the area. Circle sighed.

“It probably is going to suck ass. If this is anything like the last one it is.” The two pink shapes on the side vanished as three large ones cut the area in two, separating Tri from the rest of the group.

“Well, shi-” Tri began before hurriedly having to dodge a zig-zagged stream of square-shaped pink bullets. Two pink sections at the bottom of the screen in a roughly right-triangle shaped area began to flash.

“I think that there’s a drop coming.”

“Yeah, that’s probably what’s going to happen.” The tower in the middle did drop, sending rounded-out rectangles shooting up before settling in a shifting mass of pink at the bottom of the screen that was shooting zig-zag pattern upwards.

“I think im getting flashbacks from the last gateway we were in.”

“Well, at least we’re not getting hit.”

“Or having spikes fall from the ceiling onto us.”

“This is still WAY too easy.”

“And?”

“It’s making me suspicious.” As Penta said that, some smaller and apparently non-shooty versions of the weird pixelated square thing began floating across the area from their right.

“I swear, if THOSE start shooting...”

“You just fucking jinxed us didn’t you Tri.”

“OH FUCK.”

“THE GROUND’S GONE.”

“WHAT.”

“ALSO I’M PRETTY SURE THAT THERE’S GONNA BE A DROP.”

“WHAT TIPPED YA OFF!?” It was at this point that the beat did in fact drop. All of the squad took a hit.

“FUCK”

“Oh great now it’s sPINNING.”

“There are lasers too.”

“MOTHERFU-”

* * *

The shapesquad did make it through the gateway. To say that they ENJOYED it however, was a completely different can of worms. Which was to say, they did not enjoy it. In fact, they were still cursing the last section of the gateway. All of them had taken two hits during that last phase, even circle, who was a LOT better at the dodging part than the rest of them.

“I CALL BULLSHIT.”

“Hey Penta, at least nobody got shattered.”

“Penta, If I wasn’t so afraid of getting my head knocked off I would say ‘git gud at dodging’.”

“You two, just… stop it okay. We all need to continue on.”

“Yeah good point square.” The miniature triangle then took out the ground beneath the group at that particular point, It fell into the stream of lava below it, and the entire squad landed rather painfully on it.

“WHAT THE SHIT”

“OW.”

“No shit Circle.” They group quieted as they makeshift raft of stone floated down the stream of pink lava.

“Penta, is… lava supposed to be pink?” Penta glanced over.

“No. It isn’t.”

“Hopefully things aren’t too bad.” The raft of stone floated for a little while, before promptly running aground, breaking, and then sinking into the pink lava. There was another gateway in this cavern. As well as a (currently unoccupied) ledge over the lava. The shapesquad had regenerated over the short ride, but were still missing pieces.

“I think that we should rest for a bit.” Circle said. Their voice echoed in the cavern.

“Yeah good idea circle.” A non-pink and non body-horror central flower poked their head out and ventured onto the ledge above the lava, looking around.

“Circle? Is that you?” Circle’s head shot around to face the source of the question.

“Oh! Lylan! There you are!” The flower (now introduced as Lylan) Looked down, somewhat in surprise. Then Lylan grinned and waved at the squad.

“Hey Circle and others! What happened? You guys look like you went through hell.”

“That’s pretty much what happened.” Penta said dryly.

“Eeeh…. Long story. Long story short, one of those gateway things got us all pretty good.”

“Gateway things?”

“Those gray pentagon-shaped things that you find sometimes?”

“Oh, so THAT’S what those are.”

“Yep.”

“And that’s why yall look like you’ve been through hell?”

“Also yes.” Lylan whistles.

“Must’ve been painful.” Circle chuckled good-naturedly.

“I can’t speak for Tri, Penta, or Square, but it hurt for me at least.”

“Good thing that yall can regenerate eh?”

“Yep.” There was awkward pause, as the five shapes were thinking of things to say. After a pause Lylan spoke up again.

“Say… do yall know why the lava’s pink now?”

“Big pink bastard kinda caused the apocalypse by tearing down the treeangle.” Square said matter-of-factly. Lylan blanked at them, in a combination of shock, confusion and horror.

“A ‘big pink bastard’ caused the apocalypse by doing **what** now?”

“Tearing down the treeangle and kinda also breaking it into three pieces.” Tri piped up. There was a solid pause al Lylan, who apparently hadn’t gone outside of the volcano in a while processed that information.

“Yeah.” Penta started “It’s… really bad out there.”

“The freakiest thing are those body-horror pink things that look like flowers in my opinion.”

“The WHAT?” Lylan shouted from their position, clearly confused and horrified.

“Ran into some pink flowers.” Square stated.

“They looked really nasty as well. They didn’t have mouths and their eyes looked like they were kinda… melting out of the socket…” Tri continued. Lylan was understandably disturbed a bit.

“Really aggressive and also REALLY stupid.” Circle picked up where Tri had left off. “For some reason they kept on trying to attack us.”

“Huh.” Lylan said. “You see any other flowers out there? Everyone else went out because they heard something that sounded like some sort of fight. They haven’t come back.”

“No. We haven’t seen any flowers other than the pink ones…” Penta stopped dead in their thoughts.

“Oh. Okay.” Lylan sat down on the ledge of rock, and watched the shapesquad as they wandered around the small area.

“Okay,” Circle began speaking to the shapesquad. “I’ve almost fully regenerated. How about you three?”

“I’m almost done regenerating as well.” Square stated.

“Eh… I think that i’m okay…?” Tri looked at themselves then looked back up. “Yeah I think that i’m okay.” Penta, who hadn’t stood up, and was lying with their limbs splayed out like a starfish was the final one to speak up.

“I’m fully healed. Waiting for you guys.” Penta was still thinking of the potential ramifications of not seeing any non-pink body-horror flowers around.

“Waiting for what?” Lylan asked from their position on the rock ledge.

“Waiting for us to regenerate fully so we can all go through the gateway.” Circle answered.

“You can go through the gateway things?” Lylan asked, confused.

“I mean, that IS kinda why we call them ‘gateways’.” Circle responded.

“Cool.” Lylan went quiet once again. Appearing quite content to watch them.

“I’m healed” Square stated, to break the quiet, which was starting to get on their nerves. Well, that and the still ever-present buzzing feeling in their fingers.

“Same” Tri said. Circle looked at themselves to check their regenerating progress.

“I’m healed as well.” Penta sat up.

”Time to head to the gateway then.” Lylan watched with interest as the group of shapes walked up and then jumped into the gateway.

“‘Wonder if **I** can enter those gateways too…” Lylan mused quietly to themself.

* * *

This gateway started with pink shapes shooting at them from both sides and fading before they get to the middle. The right side was shooting squares, and the left was shooting circles.

“If these things weren’t trying to constantly shatter us” Tri began. “I would think that these things are REALLY FUCKING COOL.”

“I have to agree with you on that.” Square muttered. They genuinely thought that the small spaces in the gateways were quite ‘cool’ as Tri put it. There was a silent beat, that the pink followed in each gateway, and each gateway was different. However, they would’ve liked these gateways a lot more if they weren’t apparently trying to shatter them and the others. This one was really… interesting to say the least. Square didn’t have to look around to see every bit of it, every bit of the pattern, and really drink in the sights of this one. It was really cool. It’d be cooler if it wasn’t somewhat-actively trying to shatter them though.

When the comet-esque shapes appeared and started drifting, things got more difficult. After roughly a minute of that, two sections on either side began to fade into pink, with mirrored zigzags appearing in the faded pink areas.

“Woa” Tri breathed. If they had eyes, they would have been filled with sparkles at the sight. “This is cooooollll…” Then tri promptly got smacked in the head and took one damage from one of the ‘comets’. “NOT COOL ANYMORE.” Both Square and Penta chuckled, while circle grinned. Penta turned serious, and glanced at the others.

“Is it me or is this… TOO easy?”

“PANTA JUST JINXED US.” Penta twitched, and then whirled to face Tri.

“FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM NOT-” Penta’s sentence was interrupted by a LOT of small, pink round bullets that blanketed the top half of the gateway’s area. Circle couldn’t help but laugh. Square made a slightly amused, slightly frustrated sound. The buzzing was still there for them. It was most likely nothing, but something about it was still bugging them.

“HEADS LOW!” The four dashed upwards to avoid the stream of pink square-shaped bullets that blanketed the bottom half of the gateway’s area.

“Thanks for the heads up!”

“No prob!”

“Speaking of heads, heads down!” The four dashed down, square overdashed and smacked into the floor of the gateway’s area.

“Good thing that wasn’t pink.”

The shapesquad worked out a pattern to deal with the half-blanketing bullets, if one of them yelled ‘HEADS UP!’ it meant that the bullets were covering the top. If one of them yelled ‘HEADS LOW!’ or “HEADS DOWN!” it meant that the bullets were covering the bottom. They still had to dodge the ‘comets’ which there were more of, but those were rather easy to dodge. When the two walls on either side retreated, Square spoke up.

“I think that there’s a drop coming.” A couple of seconds later, Square was proven right.

“Are those… **_cannons_ **.” Penta hissed.

“I think so…” Circle whispered. Square just floated there and stared at the actual cannons that were in the gateway. This was NEW. Technology hasn't shown up in one of these gateways at ALL until now.

“I _cannon_ believe it!” Square facepalmed, Circle snickered, and Penta whirled around to face Tri. If Penta had a face, it would have been expressing the rage that one feels when you hear a TRULY horrible joke. Before Penta could charge forward and ‘strangle’ Tri for that pun, the cannons started firing. Tri took another point of damage. “OH SHIT”

“HA! KARMA!”

* * *

The shapesquad made it out with surprisingly few hits, except for Tri. (who had took two.) Lylan was still there on the ledge, watching them with a sort of curiosity.

“That gateway was REALLY cool, but also REALLY frustrating,” Tri muttered.

“Git gud.” Penta said. Then stopped when they realized what they had said. Tri was beaming. “You’re corrupting me with your jokes Tri.”

“Come join the jokester side” Tri was still grinning. “We have cookies.”

“No you don’t.” Circle said, walking past the two shapes, with Square tailing behind them with the miniature triangle.

“I was TRYING to make a JOKE!” Tri shouted at Circle, smile vanishing.

“I know.” Circle said, grinning.

“Are… you guys always like this?” Lylan asked from the ledge that they were on.

“Yeah pretty much.” That was square, who was now sitting down a decent way away from the lava, still holding the miniature triangle. Lylan quieted again, while Penta and Tri bickered a bit. Or more accurately, Penta bickered and Tri mostly joked.

“How long until everyone’s regenerated fully?”

“We’re all waiting on Tri in that regard.” Tri still had roughly one point of damage to regenerate.

“Yeah I still have one hit left to regenerate.” There was a bit of a pause, before Circle spoke up.

“Hey, Lylan,” Circle began “Anything new happen recently?” Lylan shook their head negatively.

“Not really. Same old books, not that they’re **bad** or anything… and I haven’t really gotten the courage to really go out and get some more.”

“Well, you’re doing great right now!”

“Uh… thank… you?” Judging by their reaction, Lylan apparently wasn’t used to getting compliments like that. “I just… came out of my room…”

“That’s still improvement!” Classic Circle, being friendly and supportive. The two shapes conversed for a little while longer, where Square, Penta, and Tri sat in a awkward silence, none of them wanting to interrupt the two.

“How do you think cube’s doing?” Penta asked that, voice barely audible to the two other shapes sitting next to them. Square tensed, gripping the miniature triangle in their hands until their hands began to hurt. The buzzing feeling intensified as well.

“They’re most likely fine, right?” Tri responded.

“I sure hope so… I don’t think that any of us would forgive ourselves if something happened to them and we couldn’t help…” Tri and Square nodded. Square still felt guilty for not being able to help them, when they were clinging to a tree and floating away at the very beginning. They could all hope that Cube was going to be alright.

* * *

  


Circle and Lylan finished their conversation a couple minutes later. All of the shapesquad were healed fully, and were apparently waiting for them to stop their conversation before moving on.

“See ya later Lylan!” Circle waved. Lylan waved back.

“Break a leg! Or rather… don’t.” Lylan responded right back. Tri snorted in amusement. Square stood up, still holding the miniature triangle.

“Everyone ready?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“I am ready.” Square let go of the miniature triangle, and it floated upward gently, before suddenly accelerating and slamming into the cavern ceiling. A section of it fell, splashing in the lava. The group one by one, hopped on. There was a sudden _CRACK_ of breaking rock. All of the shapesquad turned sharply. Lylan was pitching forward, the ledge of rock they were perching on having cracked and was starting to fall. Lylan emitted a small shriek before they, and the ledge of rock they were on, fell into the lava. Square was already jumping in a attempt to help them.

The lava hurt, worse than the pink water, and worse than any other physical contact with pink objects before. Square screamed, then launched out of the lava and landed back on the rocky platform, before collapsing. It was absolute agony. Then, the entire rock platform lurched and was tossed upward. A single pink flower grabbed hold on the side and lurched up, garbled screeches emitting from its mouth. This one had a mouth, it was melting and fusing together, eyes dribbling what looked like black tears, and pink spikes ripping out of its flesh with sickening sounds. Circle, who was holding on to a still-in agony square, stared in horror at it, Circle recognized them.

“L-LYLAN!?” the corrupted Lylan made a garbled hissing sound, and tried to lash out, half-melting claws leaving shallow scratches on the rock. Lylan, now corrupting started screaming nearly indecipherable words, while their body was melting and reforming into some spikier, something that was deadly, and something that was either trying to kill them, or lashing out in some desperate attempt for help.

“n̸̨̎̉O̴̟Ṫ̸͖̂ ̵͉̣̇P̵͔̟͝I̴̞̿̒N̶̞͜͝K̵͇̣̎͒ ̵͎̇B̴̺Ų̶̾͠T̷̘̙̅͊ ̵̬͒f̴̤͝Ṛ̵̥͆͆i̵̯̫͌E̵͚̚n̵̺͕͒d̵̥̈!”

“LYLAN!” Lylan didn’t respond, still screaming. Lylan launched forward, lashing out- 

“Y̸̡͌͘ơ̴̬Ư̵̪ ̵̻̬̑a̶̞͆̆Ȓ̸̼ȩ̴̩̿͗ ̵͉͍̑Ņ̸͍O̴͓͍͠t̵̖̣̿ ̴̱͛̄g̴̙̋̓o̸̥̦͘İ̵̼̮Ṉ̶̆G̴͈̀̆ ̶̋ͅT̵͈̽̈́ͅo̷̭͐͝ ̵̤̥͋ḥ̸͎͌̕ȗ̸̩̾R̵̮͊ẗ̵́ͅ ̵̙̅T̷̩̳̽H̷͔̟̑e̸̕͜M̴͙̾̚” -only to have their claws start dragging across their face, ripping open long gashes on their face. Lylan screamed, partially in agony, partially in warning, before slipping and falling off the platforms. “a̶͌̇͜ļ̵̛̘L̸̟̼̆ ̵͔̓O̵̙̮͌F̷̨̞̏ ̷̭̫́̔y̴̨o̸̮̝̾̚U̶̲,̸̩͐͝ ̴̺͙̕Ŗ̶̊U̸̮̍̿n̴͍̘ ̷̣̕Ẃ̶̻̈́h̷͗ͅi̶͔͆L̸̙͐e̸͚̐ ̵̩̪́y̶͎͚ö̵̰̙́̑U̸̟̜͘ ̶̛̰̦͘C̷̛͙̓å̶̖͕N̷̞̱̏͝!” Circle shut down mentally, and looked like they were going to start going into shock, crying. Tri was panicking and screaming, square had stopped screaming but was twitching and whimpering in pain, and Penta was apparently the only one who was keeping somewhat calm. Penta looked up, and then turned to face Tri, who had stopped screaming, but still panicking and shouted.

“TRI! WE’RE GONNA NEED TO DODGE.” Tri snapped to attention.

“I don’t think that Circle or Square are up for it!”

“THEN GRAB ONE AND I’LL GRAB THE OTHER.” Tri darted over, and wrestled the still-twitching Square out of circle’s hold.

“I owe ya this for letting me piggyback earlier.” Tri muttered. Square whined in response. Penta snagged Circle, and the two of them started dodging the pink spiked spheres that were falling slowly from the top, and the occasional lunge from the Corrupted Lylan. Partway through, Square managed to snap out of their pain-addled haze and managed to string together coherent sentences, mostly warning Tri of things heading at them. Once the rocky platform they were on collided with the ceiling, Penta chucked Circle off onto the ledge, and Tri leapt off at the same time. Penta was the last one of the squad to make it to the rocky ledge, just managing to land as the rocky platform that they had been standing on fell into the rising lava, or ex-rising lava. When Penta landed, Circle was sitting up and rocking in a curled-up position, quietly whimpering.

“Hey Circle…” Square began hoarsely, ignoring the pink rimming their vision,( _probably from the pain._ They reasoned) and disregarding the pink flecks that they kept on seeing flickering on their fingers ( _It’s probably nothing._ )“Are… you alright…?” Circle whispered something unintelligible. The relative calm was interrupted when a certain corrupted flower shot up and made a beeline for the squad, which promptly dashed away from the danger. (even if a couple of them had to be dragged.) Once they were out of reach of the corrupted Lylan, who appeared to finally succumbed to the corruption, they all huddled together.

“What was that?”

“I think” Penta began “That’s why we don’t see any other flowers other than pink. Around”

“So…” Tri mused “It’s like they got… infected?”

“The word that I was thinking of was ‘corrupted’, but ‘Infected’ works too.” Circle who had apparently risen out of the shock noticed something. Or thought that they noticed something.

“Square, what’s that on your fingertips?” Square looked down. The tips of their fingers (which quite frankly were more like claws) were **pink** . Square froze, mind flashing back to everything that they had seen so far of the pink/corrupted shapes. Even Lylan, who was according to circle, and from what they’ve seen of them, was a really pacifistic, nice, and a absolute cinnamon roll. Seeing the now-corrupted Lylan screaming at them unintelligibly and while lashing out and trying to reach them, most likely in a way that would end in a shattering, drove home something truly **horrible**.

“Oh… oh no nononononononononononononononono” Square hurriedly scooted away from the others, even partially curling up. The distress that they were in seemed to make the pink spread, and spread _fast_. The other three began to have an expression similar to horror start to appear. The corrupted Lylan stop screaming & swiping and appeared to be confused.

“Square?” Circle went to reach out for them, in a way to try and comfort them.

“DON’T-” Square stood up at this point, backing away, still hunching over, arms crossed and their claws digging into the material of their shirt. “DON’T TOUCH ME. DON’T. I-I’LL HURT YOU IF YOU DO. E-EVERYTHING THAT’S PINK WILL HURT YOU IF YOU-U TOUCH IT.” Square was backed up as far as they could without falling off, their fingers digging in even harder into their shirt. They were constantly repeating the word “no” quietly, but the tone was very clear that they were in distress. The pain, which they had suppressed for a while came back at near full-force, and they staggered a bit, teeth clenching and fingers ripping holes in their shirt. The pink was spreading at the same speed as it was before.

Circle stood up, Tri following their lead cautiously. Penta still looked really horrified, and now there was also an expression of morbid curiosity joining the look of horror as well.

“Square,” Circle began, a shaky smile appearing “It’ll be alright…”

“No. no, it isn’t.” Square’s voice was nothing more than a rough whisper. The pain wracked through their body, with no apparent rhyme or reason. Circle stepped closer. Tri hung back, however, they were cautiously peeking around Circle to watch Square.

“Square, it’ll- it’ll be okay…” Circle’s shaky smile and the tone that SCREAMED distress gave away that fact that they were in emotional pain. Square couldn’t handle it.

“STAY AWAY FROM ME!” Square screeched at Circle, before turning and leaping off the side of the volcano. Too absorbed in the pain, the fear, and now the regret that was slamming through them like they were being stabbed over and over with a knife made of fire. They barely realized that they were screeching at the top of their lungs.

* * *

Steam was still in their raft. They had dug out a pack of cards and were playing solitaire, quietly enjoying the fact that nothing was trying to shatter them. Steam however, _was_ startled by the shrieking cyan-pink blur that landed on their raft, causing them to accidentally mess up their cards in surprise, before said cyan-pink blur shot away across the water, still screeching. There was a moment of silence before Steam whispered;

"what th' buck was 'at?" quietly to themself, looking in the direction where it had gone. They could still hear the screeching, though they weren’t sure whether they were actually still hearing the blur, or whether they were just imagining it. They rearranged their cards on their raft, and after a while began to play solitaire again, this time however, they were on edge. Something about that blur unsettled them. They didn’t quite know why though.

* * *

Square was running, putting as much distance between them and the others as they could possibly do. They still felt like they were being stabbed over and over again with a blade made of fire, and the pain was almost unbearable. They spotted what looked like a bit of a hole in a side of a hill, and made a beeline for it, scrambling in before leaning against the backdrop. Now, they let the tears that they had been holding fall. They sobbed, back pressed against the end of the hole, and their grip on their shirt loosening, only for them to start gripping their shoulders with the same amount of force. Smaller bursts of pain from their now-serrated fingertips/claws digging into their shoulders was almost entirely swamped by the burning pain, borderline agony from falling into the lava. They started rocking, curling up as much as they could. Everything hurt. Hopefully they were far enough away from the others, they really hoped that. They didn’t want to hurt them. Now, with nothing but the pain to distract them from the thoughts that had been pushed to the back since this entire event started came roaring up, accompanied with yet more pain, this time mentally. Their voice had given out earlier, but if they could still scream, they would have been.

After who knows how long of sitting & rocking in a pink-tinted agony-filled quiet hell, they thought they heard something. It was barely recognizable as a voice, mostly due to the pain scrambling their senses.

“Ğ̴͚͈͝ṳ̶͇̈̅y̷͈̑ṡ̴̠͉̒,̸̹͂͛ ̷̲̟͒́ā̶̖n̷̟̩̊̚y̵̝͈̌̌ ̵͙̊̑ļ̸͎̇̊ŭ̷̬c̷̩̝̓̚k̸̰̿̋ ̶̯̬̃ȯ̶̩̗ń̵͍̦ ̴̜̞̈́͠f̸͓͌i̵̻͝n̷̛͓̚d̵̳̈̅ḯ̷͚̺͑ň̶̗̓g̶̳͠ ̶͓̅t̴̠̎͂h̶̰̅e̷̠̋͠ ̸͈͊s̷͙̈c̵̝̄͋r̵̭̐e̷̹͛̇a̵͉̍m̷̙̅î̶̲͝n̶͕g̶̥͐͝ ̵̥̰̍t̶̩̆̓h̶̗͈͝i̶̙͋͠n̴̘̊̐g̶̖͆͐?̴̗̌͝”

“N̵̨͙̂ơ̸̦̚.̵̻͜ ̸̤̾͝N̴̟̕ỏ̷̮t̴̜̔ ̸͕͒ÿ̷͇́͠ȇ̶͔͖ț̵̄̅ͅ.̵̙͓̈́” scratch that. It was two voices. Square made a small sound of pain, their voice was coming back. However small the sound was, it apparent caught the attention of the two that were talking.

“D̸̳͙̐͝ǐ̷̖̂d̵̺̠͋̊ ̵̳̅y̸͉̐̈́o̵̠̽͋ǘ̴̜̞ ̷͚͍͒̽h̴̫͍͝ė̵͕̀a̸̹͝͝r̸͔̤̋ ̴̣̘̉ẗ̸͖́h̷̟͂̔ǎ̵̖͛t̵̫͙͌͆?̴̥̞̽̀”

“Y̸̫̖̒̄e̵͇̻͂̋a̷̪͙͋̿h̸̨̍ ̴̣̜͂̉Ị̸͆ ̵̗͊d̸͔̤̀ĩ̴̱͝ḏ̷̇.̶̼̬̀̋ ̷̩̎̏”

“H̵̭̃̓o̵͉͑͒l̴̘͊ḑ̸̛͖͆ ̷̫̋͂ͅm̵̩̗y̴̤̯͊ ̵̫͚̾͌b̶͔̲̋e̴̙̭͆͋e̴̥̰͝r̴͓͋.̵̟̈́ ̶̭͑I̵̮͊'̵̺͋m̶̱̈́̅ ̸̢͍͑̆c̷̠͛͠ḣ̷̻e̴̲c̴̡͓̒ḱ̸̖i̸̻͙̔̎n̵̢͉͌͠ğ̸̼͊ ̴͍͕͐t̸̲͖͠h̷̩̗̿e̴̮̦͗ ̴͎̯̇h̶̢͆́õ̶̖l̷̮̬̾͊e̵͚̓͠.̸͙͛̏” Rustling, then followed by someone moving quietly. The pain finally became too much and Square fell over, slipping in and out of consciousness, barely able to make sense of anything other than the pain. “O̶͉̻͘h̴̫̤̽ ̶̧̭̈͑f̵̙͓̍̕u̵̺͖͛c̶̯k̶͎̊.̴̡̕͝ ̸̳́” whoever was searching in the hole apparently found them. Square barely processed that they had been picked up, and then hurriedly carried out. “Ğ̶͉͋ō̶͔͝ơ̷̘̬̓d̶̙̼̾ ̸̧̘͂̓n̴͉̥͝e̵̘͘w̴͚ș̵̨̿̎:̴͍̑̒ ̸̱̈̑ͅI̵̧͘ ̷̻͗̇f̷͈̭͂̚ŏ̴͚͋u̴̺̥̅̈́n̶̟͒̅d̷̦̕͜ ̷̪̋t̸̒ͅḧ̸̛̰e̴͓͝ ̵̝͔͝s̷͇̹͊c̷̢̬̀̈r̵̤̒͆e̵̥̣̋â̶͎m̸͚̰̄̐ẹ̸̒̐r̴͔̒.̸͉̾ ̶̣͑̋B̴̮̦̚a̶̧̐͠ḋ̴̨͚͘ ̸̤͗̈́n̶̡͝e̴̱͝ŵ̷͚̯͆s̴̺̿̈́.̶̣̳͒̒.̸͚͓̇̾.̷̝̻͗ ̶͊͜͝w̸̬̆e̶̦̹͂l̸͎̥̑̉l̸̦̈̄.̵͇̪̓͘.̵͔̃.̵͖̈́”

“Ȟ̷̱̯ô̵͇͕l̵͉̿̇y̷̰͑̿ ̶͙́s̵͇͉̿h̶̨̝͋i̷͇̪̊ť̶̨̚.̴͍̘̎”

“Y̸͎̌ē̸̙̽a̷͔̘̐h̴͉̐.̵̫͖̈.̴͉̕.̶̧̤̈́ ̴̰̏A̶̰͑l̵̟͑̇s̷̭̥͛̄o̷̟͒ ̴͔̣̍̚g̸̦͍͐o̵̘͙͠n̵̟͎̈́͝ň̵̻̯ȁ̴̧͠ ̶͇̊n̴̢̩̓e̴̙̝͝͝ě̶̜͓͝d̷̗̅̃ ̶̨͆y̷̺͕̔͝o̸͚͛̌u̶̹͘ ̸̢̎t̶͙͍͑͝o̶̩͍͆͆ ̷̢̞̽͗c̶͚̑͋ȯ̶̭͛v̵̼͆͌ë̶͉́r̶̨͛ ̷̠͙͒f̴̬̩̍̕ö̵͈́̕r̴̦̙̀ ̶͔͒͒m̷̟̗̔e̷͐̀ͅ ̵̠̅̽w̶̪͖̃̈́ḩ̴̛̺̓i̸̡̼̊l̷̳̊̈́ȇ̶̥̬ ̸̢̂̽I̸̥͗͋ ̷̼̹̆̈ĝ̸͈̲e̶̻̎t̴̢̲̂̍ ̷̠̓t̸̙̃ḫ̵̢̛̈ḯ̶̜͘͜s̸̱͝ ̴̭̓̕s̸̹̽̂h̸̹͠a̸͚͑̕p̸͈͑ȇ̴̮͙̋ ̵̬̲͘ǐ̸̟̲n̷͉̱̒̕.̴̙͜͝ ̶̳̙̾W̵͓͌̍e̷̤̿̿ ̸͕̚d̶̨̏ȍ̷̝̂n̸̰̺̈'̴̟̗͛̐t̶̢͒ ̵̌͜k̵̗̐͠ñ̶̨͉o̶̝̙͑w̴̟͛ ̶̫̆h̴̠͊ǒ̵̱w̷̲̃ ̵̧̊P̷͎̦̈́̾K̶̜͛̇'̷̳̄͝s̶̘͙̀̉ ̵͚̜̏̓ǵ̸͎ọ̵́͜n̷̫͂̌n̶̤̑͌à̴̡̹͘ ̷̣͘ŗ̸͆e̶̫͘ä̵͈́c̷̨͚͊̈́ẗ̴͎̐ ̵̯͛ț̷͎̑̈́o̴̦̼̿ ̸̥͋̓ṭ̴̰͌̕ḥ̶̈́ȋ̴̮͔̊s̵̩̎͝.̶̠̾̍”

“G̶̜͂ȯ̸͙ṱ̷̹̋͝ ̵͉̃̉i̷̬̍t̷̺̙̔̈́.̷̜͠” It was at this point that square promptly passed out.


	2. oh look, more pain and some body horror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a bit of a shorter chapter this time (only 11 pages) but I thought that'd I was leaving yall withought an update on this fic for too long so, Enjoy!  
> For those who are waiting for some PK being a absolute oblivious dumbass, don't worry, it's coming.

The non-body horror corrupted flower that just called themselves ‘Weed’ (because they could really only remember that their name started with a ‘w’) was slightly leaning against one of the walls of the tower, cradling the passed-out corrupting square as best as they could without causing damage to said shape. They really hated being spiky sometimes. Another non-body horror pink flower popped their head around the doorway of the tower. 

“You’re free to go in. Some of them managed to corner PK in a room with water guns.” Weed exhaled a breath that they hadn’t been aware that they were holding. That made things a LOT easier. 

“Good. We don’t know how’d he react to something like this.” Weed gestured at the still passed-out shape, before darting inside. The other flower, nicknamed ‘Newbie’ followed them. “Is this shape gonna be okay?” Weed was power walking (or the flower equivalent of power walking since they don’t really have legs) down one of the side hallways. They responded without pausing in their movement.

“Really, it depends. The corruption appears to have a habit of erasing memories and even flat-out torturing shapes into mindless creatures hell-bent on attacking anything that moves that isn’t corrupted.” Newbie blinked in confusion. That was understandable. Most of the other non-mindless had similar reactions at first.

“Depends on what?”

“Whether or not the shape is allowed to get obliterated by the pain. Why else do you think that  _ we _ all have memory problems when it comes to events before we got corrupted?” There was a pause before;

“And PK’s  _ still _ oblivious to the fact that he kinda caused _ all _ of this?” Newbie’s tone of voice  _ shrieked _ confusion.

“Yeah, well,” Weed stopped in a doorway, and turned to face Newbie, who was tailing them. “He  _ IS _ an absolute oblivious dumbass.” Weed shrugged before entering the room, still talking. “You haven’t been around long enough to really understand  _ just how much _ of an oblivious dumbass he is.” Newbie went as if they were going to argue, but stopped and then conceded. They  _ were _ newer to all of this than Weed after all. 

There was a decent pool of water taking up a good portion of the room’s floor. There was water seeping in from some seams in the room’s sides. It appears as if there was a water source from outside of the tower gradually seeping in. Weed walked over to the water. The puddle was deep enough for a flower to completely submerge themself if they wanted to, due to the floor’s sudden slant. “Plus, we don’t know how he’ll react to that information. If we flat-out tell him that he kinda caused the apocalypse he could  _ very well _ home run us out of the tower out of reflex. The  _ last ones _ that happened to kinda  _ shattered _ , so nobody’s really eager to tell him. Plus there’s a betting pool on how long it’ll take for him to figure it out, and if any of us tell, we’d be losing the opportunity to make a  _ killing _ in said betting pool.”

“Oh.” When Newbie went to follow Weed closer to the water, Weed lifted one of their hands.

“Might be a good idea for you to not be in range when I dunk them. We don’t know what this shape’s capable of.”

“And you’re gonna be fine?”

“Compared to being in the  _ same room _ as PK when he’s on a  _ caffeine _ high? I doubt that  _ anything _ this shape could throw at me could be worse than that.” Newbie winced at that. They did have a point though. Weed shifted their grip on the still-unconscious square, still being as gentle as they could possible be. After they were sure that they had a good grip, they shoved the smaller, corrupting shape into the water.

* * *

Square suddenly came too, followed by another wave of absolute agony. Then they realized, through pink fragmented vision that wasn’t matching up to anything that made sense, that they were being held underwater, and began to panic, thrashing. They were then ripped out of the water, still thrashing, and then promptly dropped. They fell, thrashing and hacking up water on the pink(?) floor. Their memory was  _ just _ fuzzy enough to be absolutely confusing. They were pulled to their feet by another shape, one that they couldn’t make out due to how fragmented their vision was.

“Okay, whoever you are,  _ stay awake and stay aware _ , you hear me?” Square made a sound that was a combination of confusion and pain. Their vision was still fragmented in disorienting pieces, and they felt like they were going to fall over. “Okay, you’re aware enough to respond. Good. OI NEWBIE!” Newbie popped their head out of the doorway.

“You rang?”

“Yeah I did. Go snag one of the drinks will you?”

“On it.” Square made another confused sound, head still swimming because of the pain, before they remembered that they could speak. 

“Where… am I?”

“Okay, that’s a good sign. You can talk.” Memory still blurry, and vision still fragmented into confusing pieces, they tried to step forward. There was a sharp  _ CRACK! _ And then they pitched forward, shrieking in pain, the only thing stopping them from faceplanting being the fact that they had caught themselves. 

It felt like one of their legs had given out, but not at the same time, while being snapped off. There was the sensation of something dripping down their leg, that felt like something had snapped off it, yet hadn’t at the same time. And it hurt, it hurt so much. It was hard to think.

“Okay, I got the drink.” Newbie, who had just come back in, blinked at the scene before them in confusion. “Weed, what’s going on?”

“Well…” another cracking sound and this time square face planted into the floor, losing their grip on the floor. Something else broke at that point. Probably their ‘face’. Everything hurt. It was still hard to think beyond the pain.

“It seems like the corruption’s finally gone physical.”  _ corruption _ . The word, as well as the combination of pain and seeing nothing but pink broke the haze around some of the more recent memories. Square began to screech as the flood of memories came back. It was... not pleasant. “Woah, hey, hey… calm down…” Square would  **not** calm down. They were in pain, somewhere that they weren’t aware of the location, and there was a shape  _ right in front of them _ , said shape must not have been pink, because the pink shapes _ couldn’t _ talk.  _ Right? _ Weed cautiously reached out for square, somewhat like how one would approach a wild animal while trying not to startle it. Square flinched like they had been hit, before screaming at the other shape.

“ **DON’T TOUCH ME.** ” The shape backed away slightly, then snagged something from the other shape. Square’s vision was still too fragmented all over the place to really see anything.

“Okay…” The other shape, the one who had backed away was approaching again. Square hissed at them, backing away. Or more accurately, attempting to back away. What Square ended up doing was scooting backwards on legs that didn’t feel  _ right _ , trying to get as far away from the other shape as possible. They didn’t want to hurt whoever it was. 

Weed sighed, then walked over and pretty much dragged the corrupting shape to their feet again. “Listen here buddy. Unless you  **_WANT_ ** to end up like those mindless body-horror central flowers out there, I suggest that you calm down and start listening.” Square flinched, then hissed while mentally relenting at that information, still clearly on edge, and still in massive amounts of pain. They may not like the information, but at the very least it would be a good idea to  _ at least _ listen. Penta managed to get them to agree with  _ that _ frame of thought pretty early on. They did however, wrench themself out of the other shape’s grip, snarling.

“ **Don’t. touch. Me.** ” Weed sighed, took a step or two to the side, then offered them the can that they were holding.

“Okay, first of all, drink some of this.” Square took hold of it cautiously, for their vision was still fragmented and all over the place. “It’ll take the edge off the pain. You don’t have to drink all of it, but at least drink  **some** of it.” Square looked at the can. Or rather… tried to. Their vision was still fragmented and all over the place.

“What is this.”

“Eeh… alcohol.” If square could express emotions properly (which they couldn’t bc they didn’t really HAVE a face.) they would have shot the other shape a look of disgust. “Before you jump to any conclusions, it sorta… maims the corruption. Stops it from causing a whole lot of mental damage.” Square grumbled to themself as they reluctantly lifted the can. They didn’t like it, and had avoided the stuff like the plague, even if they were technically of age, before now. Weed honestly did understood their reluctance.“You won’t be the only one here who dislikes the stuff. Most of us here avoid it like the plague, eve if it doesn’t affect us.” Square grumbled to themself again. “Also it’ll help dull the pain from all of the body-horror shit that’s most likely gonna happen soon.” Square spittaked, then doubled over hacking.

“The  **W H A T** .” they wheezed out.

“Yeah. Prob should have mentioned  _ that _ earlier. By the way, I refer to myself as ‘Weed’ and the other flower in the doorway over there is ‘Newbie’. Nice to meet you.” A pause between the two shapes, before Weed once again spoke up. “Also, it would probably be in your best interests to at least lean against a wall for the whole body horror shit that’s gonna happen. One shape nearly ended up shattering their head earlier because they ended up landing on a pointy thing on the floor.”

* * *

Square, curled up on the ground, silently admitted to themself that the  _ corrupted _ flower, which had introduced themselves as “weed” (and  _ wasn’t _ attacking them for some reason, which was really freaking them out) was right about about the following pain, and how the alcohol would help dull the pain. It didn’t mean that they had to  _ like _ the stuff though. The pain from having long spines rip out of their wrists, legs, and head was  _ absolutely  _ awful, and they really hated to think about what it would’ve felt like if the pain  _ wasn’t _ dulled. It probably would have driven them insane. Square already felt bad for Lylan, but now knowing  _ this _ pain, they were  _ REALLY _ sympathetic. 

They also understood now, why the shape that referred to themself as ‘weed’ has suggested that they at least leaned on a wall before it started.

“You still alive?” That was Weed speaking to them. Square hissed unintelligibly in response. “Still in pain?” If square was capable of giving the other shape a deadpan look, they would’ve. “Oh wait that was…. Kinda a stupid question wasn’t it?” 

“No. Shit.” Square hissed. Even if it was painful to speak, they had to say that. Seems like Tri’s withering sarcasm that had rubbed off on them quite some time ago was still there. That was a relief, the fact that they still remembered.

“Well, at least it’s _ most likely _ not going to be much longer before it stops.” Square pushed themselves into a sitting position, pretty much leaning on their arms to keep their balance and avoid face planting into the floor again.

“How. much. longer.” they could see that the corrupted flower shrugged. Their vision was starting to come back. Finally.

“Could be a minute, could be half an hour.” Square made a slightly pained, slightly irritated sound. They wanted all of this to be  _ over _ and over  _ soon _ . “Hey, At least at this point you’re not going to start  _ melting _ .” Square sharply turned their head to face the other shape, unnerved by the cheeriness of that statement. Some had started to  _ melt _ ? Then, a sudden jab of pain, a accompanying cracking sound, a flash of pink across their vision, and the sight of what they were pretty sure was blood, with…  _ were those shards? _ starting to splat on the ground, and the feeling of something dripping down their ‘face’. 

“HOLY FUCK.” At that point, Square lost their grip on the floor and face planted again. Something splatted. Most likely the pool of what was most likely  _ blood _ . 

“Okay, so… uh… I think that you’re gonna end up with eyes after this.” Square had pushed themselves up to a sitting position again, albeit unsteadily due to the sudden slickness of the floor due to the blood. 

“What.”

“Yeah those things that cracked open on your face kinda look like sockets.” They didn’t need to mention that the shards that were now on the ground used to be the parts that were taking up the space that the sockets were now occupying. It was  _ plainly _ obvious. Square partially turned to face the other shape, who backed away slightly. Square’s vision was still slightly spotty, but now it was clearing. While also deciding to be REALLY disorienting for SOME reason. 

Said reason was because they had eyes now. Said eyes were barely functional at the moment, since they were still growing in, but Square was already hating it.

“Okay,” Weed began. “Seeing someone grow eyes because of the corruption is something that I definitely did  _ NOT _ want to see.” Square hissed something unintelligible that also sounded somewhat in pain. “Yeah, i’m gonna… not sleep for a couple of weeks because I really DID NOT need to see that.”

“Motherfucking-,” Square hissed, more to themself, or more accurately, to their corruption, since they were still a bit loopy from the pain and didn’t realize that it wasn’t some form of sapient entity, than to anyone else in the room. “ **I had the fucking 360 vision to begin with, and now you’re adding** **_this_ ** **motherfucking** **_bullshit_ ** **on top of** **_that_ ** **?** ” to say that they were pissed, was entirely accurate. Okay, partially accurate, because what they were at that particular moment was; stressed, afraid,  **still in pain** , having the beginnings of a headache,  _ and _ unfathomably pissed.

“That is a big mood buddy. Minus the 360 vision thing.” Square hissed at them. Weed seemed worryingly unperturbed by the aggressive hissing. “If you need me to back off so you can scream your frustrations into the void, go on ahead and let me know.”

* * *

At more or less the same time as all of that, the rest of the shapesquad had been dealing with several things. One of them being Lylan. The corrupted lylan had managed to wriggle through the small opening, ripping open some jagged wounds in the process, and had promptly chased them, trailing a black substance that looked far too similar to blood for comfort, into the gateway that had been at the top of the volcano. Things had been rather dangerous, but they had scraped through, and had de-corrupted the treeangle piece. Which also de-corrupted Lylan. Who was rather justifiably panicking and having a emotional breakdown. It looked like Circle was about to join Lylan in said emotional breakdown at the drop of a hat.

“Well, this shit blows.”

“Tri,  _ please _ ” circle still looked like they were on the verge of crying, and their voice cracked when they spoke, betraying the emotions that were running rampant in their mind.

“Oh shit. Sorry. Probably not the best coping mechanism.” Lylan was still curled up into as much of a whimpering ball that they could, covering their eyes. They did not want to look down. The memories of falling into agony and the fragmented memories of what happened next kinda drove in the fear of heights into them. Or more accurately the fear of falling  _ from _ those heights. Either way, they were still a mess. A traumatized mess. 

“No shit Tri.” If Penta could glare, they would have been glaring daggers at Tri. Tensions had been running high and wild since Square had run off. It was clearly affecting the rest of the shapesquad. Circle’s voice was cracking due to barely-repressed emotion when they weren’t stuttering. Tri seemed to be the same as they were before, except they were trying to crack jokes a lot more than they were before, and seemed a bit disconnected to the situation, most likely an attempt to be numb to the situation. Penta appeared to be numb to what’s going on, though they were  _ painfully _ aware. It didn’t help that they were the unofficial leader of the shapesquad now. 

“I don’t know any other way to hide the pain.”

“Tri, you’re upsetting circle even more.”

“Oh  _ shit _ . Sorry.” Circle walked over to the curled-up Lylan, then crouched down to get on their level.

“H-ey, Lylan. It’s o-okay, i-it’s o-kay-y…” Lylan whimpered. Circle gently wrapped the other shape in a hug. Lylan twitched, before flat-out latching on to Circle as if their life depended on it. The other two shapes awkwardly stood a small distance away, hesitant to join in.

“Well… again… everything about this blows.”

“Tri I swear to-” it was at that point they all felt the ground vibrate. “-OH  **FUCK** .” Circle started at the sudden vibration, their grip on Lylan strengthening. They were not going to lose  _ another _ friend today. Or ever if they could help it. Lylan’s whimpering increased an octave or two in fear.

“OH SHITOHSHITOSHIT”

* * *

Steam was, once again, playing solitaire. It wasn’t like they had anything else to do, and they were rather justifiably wary of getting in the water. Because those pink... flowers were there. They could see silhouettes under the water, and there were even a couple on the surface, staring at them with half-melted eyes. It was  _ really _ unnerving. Their attention was suddenly jerked from the flowers to the fact that there was a vibration that shook the raft that they were perched on. Steam turned to stare at the volcano, expressing as much confusion & worry as they was physically possible for them to do.

“..-. ..- -.-. -.- ..-. ..- -.-. -.- ..-. ..- -.-. -.-”A pink blur shot out of the nearby cave entrance and slithered rapidly across the water, transferred over to land without an issue, and hurriedly slithered off, most likely to hide somewhere. Some of the pink flowers that were submerged surfaced to watch the blur, as well as a couple of the ones on the surface already. Steam just blinked in confusion.

Then, something landed on their raft that they hadn’t seen, jolting the entire craft and startling them enough for them to shriek, and fall off the raft rather unceremoniously. They popped their head out of the water. Tri, Circle, and Penta were on the raft, with a Blue flower that had jagged pink markings(?) scars(?) clinging onto Circle as if their life depended on it.

“O hey again steam. We’re alive. Kinda.”

“Tri,  _ please _ shut up.”

“O yeah & circle brought a friend.” 

At this point there was another rumble. The shapes glanced at each other before steam promptly hightailed it outta there, with the raft (and all of the other shapes on the raft) in tow.

None of them wanted to be around when the volcano erupted.

* * *

Turning the attention back to Square, they were still absolutely pissed. Now with a pretty nasty headache on top of that due to the eyes. At least they could reliably walk. Then there was the whole ‘flying’ thing that had happened with them nearly smashing their face into the floor when they were still figuring out how to walk again. They could handle that, though it did feel a bit  _ off _ to not be in a gateway when using it. Plus with their current predicament with the eyes, it was far too difficult for them to move like they were used to moving in the gateways. (Some part of them wondered whether or not they could’ve done that before, and if the others could do it as well. They wished that they could try to bring it up to the others, but with the way they were now, they had to stay away. And that _ hurt _ , it hurt _ so much _ to force themself to be seperate from the rest of the shapesquad.)

“You’re taking the whole ‘corrupted’ thing a LOT easier than some of the others.” Ah yes, Weed was still there, trying to uphold a conversation. Whether it was to try to keep them sane or not or just chat was still uncertain. “A couple of them went kinda… insane due to the pain & we had to uh...  _ deal _ with them before PK found out.” Square snapped out of their regretful overthinking, and turned their audial attention to Weed.

“Who is PK?”

“PK’s just what we call him bc nobody here knows his name. There’s a betting pool on whether or not PK even knows his actual name  _ himself _ .” Weed shrugged, and Square shifted their visual focus onto the other shape. Okay, bad move. Apparently, those damn eyes moved with their focus, and now their headache was even  _ worse _ . The first thing that they did when they found something remotely pointy was going to  _ stab those little fuckers out _ and  _ hope _ that they don’t regenerate.

“Fuck.” They hissed under their breath. Leaning their heads into their hands in a attempt to stop the eyes from working. It didn’t help much. They  _ really _ wanted to have some sort of pointed object right now. They weren’t frustrated enough to try and tear out their eyes with their bare hands  _ yet _ , but Square was  _ definitely _ considering it. 

“Hey man, you alright?” Weed had walked over, and was now crouching to get on Square’s level. Square shot a deadpan look in the corrupted flower’s direction. “Ah, still dealing with the extra bits that got added?”

“Yes.”

“Oof, that’s rough buddy...” Weed started moving as if they were going to pat square on the back, but hesitated before backing off. They still remembered when square had snapped at them for touching them earlier. “I’d give you some sympathetic pats on the back there, but I don’t really want you to lash out. Because that would most likely hurt.” 

“It’s not  _ you _ that i’m gonna hurt.” Square muttered darkly. They had a suspicion of just  _ who _ PK was, and if their suspicion was proved to be correct, they were ready to make him catch those hands.

“Really? Because there are some others that said that if I woke them up before 9 in the morning, they’d skin me alive.” The tone was lighthearted, as if it was a joke instead of a threat of graphic bodily harm. Square sharply turned - another mistake, they learned as their vision swam and their headache flared in intensity. They ended up faceplanting, their sense of balance apparently deciding that it would be a good time to stop functioning. A stream of muffled expletives immediately followed that. Weed looked sympathetic, but slightly amused. “You need a hand?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t rip my face off please.” Weed offered a hand, and when Square took it, helped them to their feet. Once they were up and balanced, they jerked their hand out of Weed’s grip, they didn’t want to potentially hurt them, even if they were pink.

“Not planning to you little shit.”

“Think that you can walk on your own?” Square, still stressed and pissed off, snarled at the other shape.

“Don’t fucking patronize me.”

“Just offering.” Square made a disgruntled sound before walking, somewhat unsteadily, out of the room, with Weed following. “Just try not to like… shatter anyone. Because a, that would be bad, and b, PK will most likely notice someone being shattered, and I kinda doubt that you want to get smacked with  _ that _ guitar. It has a killstreak.” Square stopped dead in their tracks and Weed ended up bumping into them accidentally. Square nearly fell over, and the only reason that they didn’t was because of the fact that their frills had automatically flared up to steady them. At least there was  _ one _ good thing about that torture they had gone through.

“ _ What _ ?”

“‘What’ what?” normally square would have turned to face the other shape, but since their sense of balance was still off, because of  _ those fucking eyes _ , and the legs that they were still getting used to because of the extra joint, they didn’t exactly trust that they wouldn’t faceplant if they tried.

“The thing with the guitar.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, it’s been proven to be a deadly weapon. Multiple times.” Weed shrugged, as if it was normal. “Though some of us are still debating whether or not the last one was caused by fall damage instead of being impaled with spikes.”

“ _ W h a t!? _ ”

“That isn’t normal is it?”

“How the fUCK IS THAT CONSIDERED  _ NORMAL _ TO YOU?!” Weed threw their hands up in frustration.

“Bitch I can’t remember anything before being corrupted.”

“What!?”

“Did I fucking stutter.”

“Why?” Weed made a gesture that was read as ‘ _ are you serious? _ ’

“The corruption probably. Because I kinda doubt that I had any head injuries to  _ that _ scale in my past.” There was a pause, in which a increasingly irritated and stressed Square made sputtering sounds while trying to think something to say. Needless to say, Weed was not impressed. The situation was ended by Newbie dropping by to see what was going on.

“Heya, Weed, Frilly” square started before whirling to face the other flower, most likely to give them a rather colorful piece of their mind about the new nickname that Newbie had decided to give them. Which turned out to be a bad idea, since they nearly tipped over, the frills once again flaring out to help them keep their balance. As much as they hated those things, they’d amit that it was much easier to move with their fucked up sense of balance than it most likely would have otherwise. Weed nodded at Newbie as a greeting more focusing on Square than the other flower at the moment, but shifted their attention to them when they started talking.

“So… PK’s still in the caffeine high.” Weed huffed, annoyed.

“Great. He still trapped in the room?” Newbie nodded

“Yep. And a good thing for that too, since treeangle knows what chaos would be unleashed if he were allowed to run wild like that.”

“We’re going to have to update the rules.” Square, having been left out of the conversation, as well as being new to this whole thing, was confused. So they butted into the conversation.

“What rules?”

“Oh yeah, forgot that you’re new here.” Newbie seemed a bit embarrassed at that, while Weed looked more amused. “Yeah, there were rules that were set up so it wasn’t absolute anarchy here.” 

“Yeah, and it definitely  _ was _ anarchy in here at first. Until PK tried to breathe water. Now he’s scared of it and we spray him with water guns to get him to behave.” Square started, blinking in surprise, out of all things the expected to hear, they was not expecting to hear  _ that _ .

“What?”

“Yeah,” Newbie began “PK’s a fucking dumbass and it’s hilarious to watch.”

“Unless it has  _ anything _ to do with caffeine. That was only amusing for about three seconds.” Newbie winced.

“Oof yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” square began, confused, “fucking w h a t?”

“‘What’ What?”

“You guys spray the bitch that caused what’s essentially the fucking  _ apocalypse _ with water guns to get it to behave?”

“Uh… yeah?” Seeing square’s confusion, the two corrupted flowers glanced at each other, Newbie seeming confused as well. 

“Newbie, they’re new to all of this, so, can you slow down the pace on the infodumping a bit?” Newbie, to their credit, looked kinda embarrassed at that. 

“Oh right, sorry, kinda forgot that.” Newbie then turned their attention to square, who was still confused, as well as still dealing with what was essentially a migraine, which wasn’t helping their overall mood that much. “I don’t think that we got your name either, if you even remember your name is.”

“My name’s Square you pieces of shit.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Now what the actUAL FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!?”

“TL;DR: a oblivious chaotic dumbass accidentally caused the apocalypse and we’re kinda living with him because this is really the only place to keep your sanity intact as far as we can tell.”

“W H A T!?”

“Did I fucking stutter Square.”

* * *

With the rest of the shapesquad, some shit had sorta gone down. Emotional shit. Lylan and Circle were both having some sort of emotional breakdown, Tri was chatting with Steam, catching them up on what they had missed out in their raft, and Penta was lost in thought, shifting through all the information that they had in an attempt to make sense of what was going on. 

“Sae, squaur jumped intae corrupted lava tae try tae save Lylan ower thaur, got corrupted coz ay said lava, an' 'en ran away.”

“Yep. Then me, Penta, and Circle went through the gateway with a corrupted Lylan chasing us, got through that, de-corrupted that treeangle piece, uncorrupted Lylan, then sorta fled down the volcano while it was starting to erupt, ended up on your raft, and then you know the rest.”

Steam shook their head, sighing.

“Bloody ‘ell. Nane ay ‘at sounds very good.”

“Yeah. It really doesn’t sound good when you really think about it. But then again...”

“ Yea, it’s teh bloody apocalypse. If things waur gonnae well, eh'd be mair woriat. ” 

“I can agree with that sentiment. Hopefully we’ll be able to find Cube soon” Steam started.

“There’s one more of ya out there?”

“Yeah we got separated from them pretty early on. Hopefully they’re alright.”

“Bloody ‘ell.”

* * *

Cube had pressed themself as far as they could into this shadowy corner on the rafters, clutching the bits of their scarf that they hadn’t wrapped around their head earlier to muffle their panicked breathing. They could both hear and feel the rhythmic clicking of the gears in other parts of the factory, but as much as they knew that their position was risky because of that, they were too afraid to go down. 

There were  _ things _ that looked like distorted, half-melted flowers that were majority  _ not _ friendly down there. Not right now of course, but they had seen those things moving around, and thank their lucky stars, the only one who had spotted them apparently didn’t care about trying to attack them. Or maybe it was too in pain to give chase. It had been covered in jagged cuts that looked like it had been caused by one of the other things down there. Either way, their presence was mostly unknown, and for that, they were  _ unfathomably _ grateful. They weren’t a fighter, and in this place, they couldn’t run away without potentially running into another one or into a dead end.

They didn’t want to imagine what would happen to them if they got caught, but they could guess that it wouldn’t be pleasant. As well as most likely leading to their shattering.

Cube heard something move below, and their breath hitched again, gripping their scarf harder. If it had been made of a more fragile material, it would have been shredded by now. 

A corrupted flower moved cautiously in. and they recognized it. The same one that didn’t appear to want to attack them earlier. It glanced around the room,  _ was it searching for them? _ Cube was  _ very _ aware of every movement that they were making. When it glanced in their direction, they could’ve sworn that they felt their heart stop. A whimper slipped past, and the corrupted flower’s head snapped to their direction. Cube froze, hoping beyond hope that it didn’t come up there.

Instead, the corrupted flower glanced around the room again, and then made a ‘shush’ gesture at them, before leaving the way it had come. When about thirty minutes passed and there were no other corrupted flowers shooting in in a frothing rage to try to shatter them, Cube relaxed somewhat, even if they were still  _ very _ on edge. Why did it leave them alone? Was it just trying to instill a false sense of security?

Cube wished that the shapesquad was with them. They’d know what to do and what was going on.

However, right now, they were lost and alone, with nothing but the shadows on their side. They couldn’t even hum to calm themself down, for that would risk one that apparently wasn’t so friendly finding them.

They were so very,  _ very _ afraid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh look some corrupted flower OCs. You can expect some more of them showing up. Also cube's okay. For now. Hooray!
> 
> Also, in this fic there's a spectrum to the corrupted flowers, which i've listed below in my impulsive worldbuilding habit: 
> 
> mindless - the mindless ones who attack everything that a. moves & b. isn't corrupted. would flat-out die or be brain-dead if uncorrupted. 95-100% corruption damage
> 
> borderline mindless - they have fractured memories, personalities and other bits and pieces from who they were before. They can get startled, can be uncorrupted without dying (although they will retain any physical mutations from being corrupted, as well as any major injuries that they gained over time of being corrupted healing over with pink-colored material) and can be reasoned with, provided that they aren't in pain. Corrupted Lylan, and the corrupted flower at the end in cube's side of things are both examples. Can speak, but it's painful for them, and garbled beyond most understanding. 51-94% corruption damage
> 
> non-mindless - Weed and Newbie are examples of it. They retain some memories from before their corruption, but they've been suppressed because of the pain. They retain their previous personalities, and are capable of speaking normally. can be uncorrupted, but will still retain mutated features, and be entirely their pre-corruption colors, most likely would prefer to not be uncorrupted, for they're fine the way they are right now. 25-50% corruption damage

**Author's Note:**

> *looks at the checklist I have for this fic*
> 
> Torture the Cinnamon rolls? .... Check.
> 
> Mental suffering for everyone? .... eeeehhh.... more or less a Check.
> 
> ....
> 
> i'm having way too much fun w/ this lmao.
> 
> and nobody can stop me.


End file.
